2013 - Year In Review

Not my photo.

2013 was an interesting year. Work was kind of rough. At least for my boss, Sid. First off, his son, Joseph, found another job. Then one of his two delivery vans was stolen. We had to make do for over a month with only one van until he replaced it.

Then we were having problems with our wet towel raw material supplier. That led to us losing one of our big wet towel clients. Sid's 3 week holiday to China in November became a problem for Peter who was just hired. He didn't get enough training and things pretty much fell apart.

As for local news... for me the big three news items were the Rob Ford circus, the summer floods and the December ice storm.

I have to admit I was a Rob Ford supporter. But his neverending antics started to turn me off. Even after his admission of taking crack cocaine I still supported him. But things just got more and more weird. His constant rants to local media topped off by his lewd remarks regarding a staffer as well as the refusal of just about every council member to recognize his authority as mayor did it for me. I'm not sure if I can support him in the future.

The floods after record rainfalls was another big news item here in Toronto. The lower Don Valley Parkway was flooded on two occasions stranding a number of unwary motorists who dared venture into the muddy waters. A GO Train heading north out of downtown even got stuck in the rising water. The stranded passengers had to be rescued by boat.

Of course many homes were flooded by the rain too, my parents' included. In our case it may have been a blessing in disguise. It forced me to clean all my junk out of their basement and either toss it or sell it. We had it renovated and updated adding a second bathroom. It looks much better than before.

Lastly we had the worse ice storm in local history. Freezing rains just before Christmas brought down tree limbs and the power lines beneath them. Nearly 300,000 customers in Toronto lost power from anywhere from a day to nearly a week and a half.

My parents were one of the lucky customers. They only lost power for about 12 hours. My sister had it a bit worse. She probably lost power for 2-3 days. I know a few others who lost it for longer. Personally, I was very fortunate. I never lost power at all.

Still it was weird driving around certain areas of the city in the pitch black at night. On top of that you had to deal with the numerous intersections which had no traffic lights. Also, side streets were littered with fallen branches, some huge. I had to clear my parents' deck of maple branches which had fallen from their neighbour's tree the morning after the rainfall.

Thankfully we were able to celebrate Christmas dinner at my parents' home unlike many others who were struggling to keep warm in sub-zero temperatures.

Here's hoping 2014 will be less chaotic.